Deitch: When the going gets tough, keep the ball in Colin Wright's hands

RIDLEY TWP. — If you were to judge a player by the circumstances and not by the contents of his gut, at one point late in the second quarter Friday night there was reason to wonder if Colin Wright was going to get to finish the playoff game he started at quarterback for Ridley.

By the time Spring-Ford had taken a 28-point lead in the District One Class AAAA quarterfinal showdown at Phil Marion Field, Wright had thrown two interceptions — both in the red zone — and had been part of a pair of handoffs to Rich Coia that ended up on the turf. The second of those was recovered by the Rams in Ridley’s end zone for their second defensive touchdown of the night.

Quarterbacks with more experience and competing at higher levels have watched the rest of the game from the sidelines after such a catastrophic chain of events. That didn’t happen to Colin Wright. Green Raiders coach Dennis Decker never thought of giving up on the junior.

In turn, Wright didn’t give up on his coach, his team, or the game. And while he and his Ridley squad fell two points shy of sending the game to overtime and a chance to complete one of the most thrilling comebacks in Delaware County football history, what will be burned into the memory of everyone who witnessed Spring-Ford’s 28-26 win isn’t anything the Rams did.

Advertisement

It will be what the kid who took over as Ridley’s starting QB in midseason did.

Wright finished with 402 yards passing, the second-most in Delaware County history, 62 yards more than Decker had in the most prolific game of his most prolific career as a Ridley quarterback. He had a preposterous 282 yards passing and four touchdowns in the second half, throwing over a Spring-Ford defense whose only real task was to not let the Green Raiders strike fast.

Wright didn’t really give them a say in the matter. His 60-yard strike to Mike Crowley, then the 50-yard connection with Mike Smoluk were thrown deep, with juice and with such pinpoint accuracy that even step-for-step coverage would’ve been in vain. He even had another deep throw at the goal line later dropped.

He was in the zone, which would’ve been impressive under any circumstances. That he did so after Ridley committed five turnovers in its first six possessions was hard to fathom.

“We struggled in the first half and shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times,” Wright said. “We had to go in at halftime and refocus, and do what had to be done in the second half.”

“I felt like we had to come out and do the little things right.”

Wright is the son of a police officer. Bill Wright once was a tall, skinny kid at Ridley who filled out late. The son is a reflection of his father — all gangly arms and legs. Someday he might fill out like his dad, and if he does he’ll have a big-time quarterback’s frame to go with an arm that’s pretty much there.

That, however, is scouting jibba jabba. The type of growing up Colin Wright did Friday night can’t be measured in height or weight, chest size or vertical leap.

The maturing he did in the second half was that of a leader. The son of a police officer found himself in a situation of immense and intense stress and strife, and he calmly, coolly carried his wounded team back.

“I do try to take things from him,” Wright said of his father. “I try to stay calm and focused.”

“I think it’s a testament to his parents and the way he’s been brought up,” Decker said of Wright’s poise. “That’s the way Colin is. He’s a quiet kid, doesn’t let a lot bother him. He doesn’t get fazed, never gets too high or too low.”

Friday night, Wright kept plugging and had his teammates believing in him the way a Baptist congregation believes in its hand-waving preacher. Only his way of gaining believers was with serenity.

Even after the game, after Spring-Ford wrestled him to the ground for a sack on fourth-and-17 and the final seconds ticking away, Wright knew what lessons he learned for his senior year.

“I have to make sure I don’t let the first half happen again,” he said, “and I have to use the second half for confidence, and to know we can do it.”